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Location: United States

Member Since: April 01, 2011

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Blair Bancroft

Biography

Blair Bancroft recalls receiving odd looks from adults as she walked home from school at age seven, her lips moving as she told herself stories. And there was never a night she didn't entertain herself with her own bedtime stories. But it was only after a variety of other careers that she turned to serious writing. Blair has been a music teacher, professional singer, non-fiction editor, costume designer, and real estate agent. She has traveled from Bratsk, Siberia, to Machu Picchu, Peru, and made numerous visits to Europe, Britain, and Ireland. She is now attempting to incorporate all these varied experiences into her writing.

Blair's first book, TARLETON'S WIFE, won RWA's Golden Heart and the Best Romance award from the Florida Writers' Association. Her romantic suspense novel, SHADOWED PARADISE, and her Young Adult Medieval, ROSES IN THE MIST, were finalists for an EPPIE, the "Oscar" of the e-book industry. Blair's Regency, THE INDIFFERENT EARL, was chosen as Best Regency by Romantic Times magazine and was a finalist for RWA's RITA award.

Blair believes variety is the spice of life. Her recent books include Historical Romance, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Thrillers, and Steampunk, all available at Smashwords.

A long-time resident of Florida, Blair fondly recalls growing up in Connecticut, which still has a piece of her heart.

Books

Juliana, Baroness Rivenhall, is haunted by her past. So much so, she spurns the man she loves, sending him into the arms of another woman. Although her friends band together to help her, her cause seems hopeless. Darius Wolfe, the love of her life, is about to marry someone else.

Miranda Tyrell and her young son escape a dire situation in Kent only to fall into an alleged lair of demons in Lincolnshire. Employed as a governess for the first time in her life, Miranda soon discovers that the peace and safety she sought are not to be found at Lunsford Hall. Only a disturbed nine-year-old, a wounded warrior, and a village convinced that both are demons.

An independent, sharp-tongued courtesan, pregnant with twins, is bartered into marriage with an upright sea captain. Add the babies' natural father, three teenage bastard children, plus the captain's outraged relatives, and the possibilities for disaster are overwhelming. Is this a marriage made in Heaven or in Hell?

When Cecilia Lilly, a high-priced courtesan, is rescued after a severe beating by her "protector," she has trouble adjusting to the fact that her savior is lord of London's Underworld instead of a Lord of the Realm. She has a considerable amount of growing up to do before her world comes right.

The orphaned Penelope Ruth Ballantyne has lived at the tail of the army all her life but must now find her own way in the world. Fate brings her to a mist-shrouded manor on the Devon coast, where she must cope with hysteria, multiple murders, a bevy of young men who may not be as charming as they seem, and a startling dilemma worthy of the judgment of Solomon.

Someone is killing people at the Bellman Museum, staging the deaths as bizarre works of art. Though struggling to recover from a severe injury and the death of her lover, FBI Special Agent Rory Travis can't resist the challenge of tackling this mystery, which brings two new men into her life. But in the end she stands alone, facing evil one-on-one.

A young lady, devastated by abuse at home, runs off to The Aphrodite Academy, a school which offers many services, including training as a courtesan. Belle, fueled by rage, chooses a life where she can break men's hearts while emptying their purses. But when she graduates, the high bidder for her services is the one man she cares about, Gabriel, Viscount Ashford, who helped her escape.

Serena Farnsworth, spinster, lives a life of service as nurse, companion, and household organizer for her extended family. Until her help is requested in a gloomy mansion in England's far north, where she encounters murder, witchcraft, mid-summer revels, shake holes, a variety of odd characters . . . and the lord of the manor—who might be a murderer.

After suffering a broken heart and barely escaping the hangman, Jack Harding escapes his past by becoming the head of a private army and spending his leisure moments as a Devil's Disciple, a club of devoted rakes. But beneath the cold steel lurks a knight errant. And when Jack is given an opportunity to save the life of an independent young heiress from Canada, his goose is cooked.

For nearly a decade Miss Amanda Merriwether persists in an impossible dream. The object of her affections is heir to a dukedom; she, the daughter of a canal engineer. Her relationship with the Marquess of Montsale suffers enough blows to discourage the strongest will, yet even when she finally learns to spurn her long-time love, somehow a spark remains.

A Florida Highway Patrol officer investigates his brother's injury in a Medieval Fair tournament and discovers an astounding sub-culture in today's Florida - the Lords and Ladies of Chivalry. He also finds a Lady Knight, fighting her way out of years of abuse. Michael Turco and Kate Knight both have a great deal to learn before they can solve a crime and lay each other's ghosts and preconceptions.

Death by accident, old age, and strangulation. An elderly senior about to marry a con artist. A rash of burglaries. Only an artistic imagination could conjure these disasters into connected events. But costume designer Gwyn Halliday manages it, as she flees trauma in the big city only to discover that bad things can also happen in a sleepy Florida retirement community.

Miss Araminta Galsworthy travels to the home of her new guardian, only to be plunged into marriage, arson, murder, and treason—all centered around her husband's invention, the first navigable airship. Minta acquires new friends, new enemies, a new husband, and becomes an important part of the restoration of the British monarchy. Will she manage, or will her head be piked on the tower?

FBI Special Agent Valentina Frost and a mysterious Russian arms dealer become strangely matched partners in a search for two nuclear bombs missing from the old Soviet arsenal. As they criss-cross the world in an attempt to prevent a terrorist attack more deadly than 9/11, they form a strong bond. But can it outlast the mission? Will they live that long?

A Merchant Princess, apple of her father's eye, makes a fairytale marriage to the heir to an earldom . . . and quickly discovers not all handsome and charming young men have temperaments that match their façades. Does her destiny lie elsewhere? Perhaps with a man who isn't trying to kill her?

Laine Halliday is a troubleshooter for Fantascapes, a company that produces fantasy weddings and fulfills clients' exotic holiday dreams. But her job becomes even more challenging when she meets a mystery man on the Inca Trail in Peru and is drawn into Russian mob warfare on an international scale.

Due to a rental mix-up, two burnouts find themselves sharing a vacation cottage on Cape Cod. Victoria Kent is a defense attorney, John Paolillo a homicide detective in New Haven. Though mortal enemies in the legal system, they discover that, no matter how hard they struggle, opposites do attract.

At the end of the Peninsular War, Catherine Audley, daughter of Britain's spymaster on the Iberian Peninsula, has a problem. Is she now the widow of a man who never existed? Is she the well-rewarded, but discarded mistress of her father's protégé, the enigmatic Englishman known as Blas the Bastard? Or is she a beloved wife whose only rival is her husband's determined expediency in a time of war?

Amanda Armitage is almost as much a captive of her family's international investigations agency as the women she discovers in an old cracker shack in the Florida outback. While attempting to rescue these victims of "trafficking," the girl known as Mandy Mouse metamorphoses into a dynamic, independent woman who might even be able to rekindle a romance with the husband she hasn't seen in five years.

A killer gloats as he stalks Realtors in the Gulf Coast resort community of Golden Beach, Florida, where Claire Langdon, a sophisticated but vulnerable New England widow with a young son, now works in real estate. When she acquires a self-proclaimed protector, a half-Russian, half-Florida Cracker ex-fed, overcoming the cultural shock is almost as difficult as catching the killer.

A tale of young love, set against the seething times of the dynamic King Henry II and his feisty wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. An orphaned heiress, torn from her home at age nine, becomes the ward of an earl and later King Henry II. Her only friend during her long captivity is a penniless squire who cannot even afford a horse and armor. Is it possible they will ever be together?

Cultures clash as Abigail Todd, a strongly patriotic proper Bostonian, is forced to cooperate with Jared Verney, an aristocratic earl, in order to carry out instructions in letters written by Abigail's grandmother, a renowned courtesan. The supposed prize, a grand cottage that was once part of the Verney estate. Except the wily old courtesan had an entirely different goal in mind.

Charles Tyrone is happily building a bridge in Scotland when a family emergency catapults him to acting head of an earldom. Among his new charges is the well-dowered Lady Vanessa Rayne, whom the old earl wants him to marry. But it takes a strong dash of mystery, murder, and mayhem before either Charles or Vanessa can contemplate the other with anything but horror.

Penelope Blayne has been married twice—and is still a virgin. Ten years ago, Jason Lisbourne sacrificed his single status to save her from the harem of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire. After that, they led separate lives until finally realizing one of them must cut the Gordian knot they have made of their marriage. Yet so far, even the second time around isn't working.

Two generations struggle to find romance as a duke makes a second marriage, and his estranged daughter finds herself attracted to her despised new step-mother's brother. It takes riot, ransom, and considerable mental readjustment before both pairs of Regency lovers are reconciled against the backdrop of unrest in London at the time of Waterloo.

To escape an unscrupulous uncle, Aurelia Trevor reluctantly accepts a marriage of convenience with a man outside her social circle. But in Thomas Lanning she gets a great deal more than she expected, discovering she must not only cope with the strong-willed stranger who is her husband, but with his unexpected young relatives and the dubious characters involved in his campaign for Parliament.

After more than six years of war, Colonel Damon Farr wants only to retreat into his library and forget the world. Instead, he is confronted daily by the mystery of a young woman with a secret past and no voice. He calls her Lady Silence. Is she a fraud who has wormed her way into his life? Or is she the spark to resurrect a soul lost in battle and teach him the meaning of love?

Smashwords book reviews by Blair Bancroft

Constant Hearts, Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion
on June 07, 2011
If you long for a tale of true romance, unsullied by masses of heavy breathing and graphic sex, this is the book for you. Ms. Hatch credits her inspiration for this novella to Jane Austen, and that's what you get. A charmingly romantic story of star-crossed lovers, torn apart years earlier, and now reunited with even greater impediments. She—oh horrors!—is divorced, and he is so hurt by her earlier rejection that he plots vengeance. I thoroughly enjoyed this all-too-short read and heartily recommend it to those who like their love stories framed in the rosy glow of classic romance.
Reviewed by: Dana Archer